Beyond the Color: Jeep Paint, Durability, and Innovation

SFJ 4x4 Studios presents, in my oversized four-wheel drive Jeep, a Jeep podcast starring industry

experts.

Pure monocity.

What?

Say that again.

With mad scientists, Scott Brown, used my drill press as a sort of lathe.

Our host, Neil Simpson, if one leg goes off, they'll all go out.

Silver's shenanigans.

We are really professional with Jeeps.

This is iSpeak Jeeps.

Good morning, afternoon, evening, wherever, however you are joining us.

This is the iSpeak Jeep podcast presented by SFJ4x4.com.

My name is Neil with SFJ4x4 Simpson Family Jeeps, and I'm joined in Grandma's couch

studio.

The maddest mad scientist, Scott Brown, sitting over there, looking fly with the American legend

SFJ4x4 hoodie.

That's fair.

And that guy over there is the producer, orange spooky season hoodie.

That signature, limited edition spooky season one we released a couple of years ago that

we released, I know you do, when we release a limited edition, it's out and then it's

done.

You know what I mean?

That's why I never wear mine because I don't want to ruin it.

Right?

And when we do a merch drop, you got to get on it or you don't.

We've got the creepin' it real t-shirt drop right now, which is pretty cool.

And then I know that Savage has been working on a, specifically a Christmas one, I'll be

honest with you guys.

And so we once again, he intentionally skipped right over.

I hear you.

Turjeepin season.

Turjeepin.

So today, we're actually going to be talking about paint in jeeps.

And I know that's not exactly a strong topic for you, which is ironic because of all the

topics jeep, you would think you would know paint and you just don't care about paint.

I don't care.

And I thought it was, you know, you guys had suggested the topic, you know, kind

of communicated it to me and I love the idea and I love, you know, bringing kind of the

depth of what you guys have prepared to our listening audience.

But I am not a paint guy.

No.

And folks.

But you are a history guy and we're going to start with the history of paint.

And I love contextualization history, right?

And we're going to talk about the future of paint with self-healing.

And that's what you were talking.

And I'm here for it.

Of course, I don't expect people to be like, you joint crazy like I am or like grease and

oil.

Like, so I kind of exist to like care about the stuff that nobody cares about.

And then like paint, which seemingly a lot of people care about.

I give, you know, two figs.

So I'll be bringing that perspective.

So if you like patina and rat rods and old school stuff and, you know, if you're

just like, hey, it's got pinstripes.

I know you, you, that's one of your favorite paint additions to your truck.

Oh, yeah.

Well, different kind of pinstripe, I think I'll be here to.

Yeah, exactly.

I'll be here to kind of add that to the conversation.

But mentioning, you know, our listening audience, we do want to take a

moment to recognize everyone who has prioritized us as their listening

infotainment, understand that Jeff is about to jump into the comments.

But if you are listening at a later date, you too can join us almost every

morning, every Monday at 10, 19 a.m.

In the comments, we go live standard time Eastern and we go live on the book

of faces or the YouTubes and we encourage you to jump into the comments

and share with people and you may get your comment read on air.

And we thank the people who do that.

But equally, all the people who prioritize listening us in their ear

holes across the world, six out of the seven continents and 90 plus countries.

Thank you so very much for making this podcast an important part of your

Jeep and off-road and automotive experience.

So in the comments, we got Billy Joe saying, good morning, everyone.

We got Jeannie saying, good morning.

And she loves the creeping at real shirts.

Geaga Jeepers saying, good morning.

Mike Lentz saying, good morning.

Missing remote says paint with an orange swatch.

So they must like the color orange.

We got Knight Rider Jeep saying, morning, gentlemen's.

Absolutely.

Good morning, good morning, good morning to everyone.

I saw the best orange gladiator over the weekend.

And it's not a common thing.

That is not a common thing.

In fact, my son and I kind of remarked, and honestly, the

orange-ness that it was is the orange of of Jeffrey's hoodie.

I mean, it was a bright orange.

And I thought that was really interesting because I kind of

don't remember that pumpkin-y orange color as a as an option for our gladiators.

Well, that was kind of kind of fun personally to see that.

And as far as paint goes, there are certain aspects of it that I can

appreciate, but for the for the vast majority of the paint and exterior

coating, I simply don't care.

Now, that is coming from a guy who when I was 15, I had my first car at 15.

I did paint my car.

And I think that through that process, they had the classic 80s,

you know, lifting clear coat.

And it was that it was supposed to be there.

It was supposed to be kind of a fire engine red.

Of course, you know, always, always biased to that.

And it had marooned out and all, you know, sun fade and sun beat.

So I painted it.

And in that process, I discovered not only do I not super care

about the colors, but I absolutely hate personally painting a vehicle.

Now, I got to ask, did you actually do the process

where you sand it down to the metal, you prime it and then you paint it?

Sure, he started that process.

Well, so then and then the care got less.

And so the reason I ask is because I absolutely did this with a Chevy

Lumina that was faded out, and I sanded it all down, took the time

to do all the sanding, right?

Then I started with the primer and it absolutely drove around

until I traded it in half primed, half painted.

So I need I need you guys to know, I need you guys to know.

And this is what I think puts me in a unique perspective,

because I know that, Scott, your vehicles only ever make it to primer.

Pretty much.

Yep. And I appreciate your honesty and your story, Jeff.

I need everybody to know I had this is one of the gentlemen

that I consider to be an amazing mentor of mine

in my automotive pursuits as a teenager.

I actually work this from start to finish it.

He wouldn't let you stop, would he?

No, absolutely not.

Absolutely not.

We actually we used his garage.

We took about a week to do it.

He literally took me to one of the reputable paint shops, you know,

at the time, 30 days at the mass standing a car.

It was the most awful experience of my life.

Yeah, which is why I don't like it now, which is why I don't like it.

Yeah, which is why I don't like it, which if you are a person

who likes painting a vehicle, I mean, I actually know people

who like the prep work.

They find it therapeutic.

They, you know, and they do beautiful work.

They don't want fingerprints.

And I'm like that God bless you.

I mean, and I think that I'm self deprecating, but that is completely

different experience that they like.

They enjoy that.

But I did the whole process.

He took me to the paint shop.

I actually talked to the gentleman at that point in time.

Again, we're talking it was a different world.

You had specialists.

You had people who who really cared about it.

Not some of the modern day paint experiences were more conscientious of.

Took me in.

We actually got to look got to look at and work with the mixer.

We picked out the metal flake.

We added the metal flake.

I mean, the whole nine yards.

And I thought that was cool.

And we were just going to tape and spray.

What we didn't do is remove all the handles and strikers.

And we didn't do that.

But we did jam it.

We did do all the things.

And I still remember the bucket and the rawness of my fingers.

Wet sanding down the eight classic eighties air quotes patina that it was.

And then we sprayed it.

And it was cool.

I mean, it was it was cool.

It looked cool.

It did.

But I never did it again.

So back to the comments real quick.

Nate joined us as good morning.

Jerry Huber says good morning to the SFJ crew.

Nate said punk and metallic is the best cheap color.

Then you got Jeanie saying her favorite color.

And she misses that color as well for that punk in her orange.

And then we got Roy saying good morning.

Jagadjeeper saying old school calico square bodies, yellow fender,

blue door, red bed, black hood.

I know that too well.

Yes. Good morning to everybody.

And I think it'll be fun.

I always like to recognize Jerry's contribution to the Jeep community.

Well, he just did a paint job.

Well, he did on on one of his

resto mods on his season you were talking about.

But Jerry, prior to his prolific

career working at the Jeep assembly plant,

started in the paint shop for, you know, Jeep Chrysler at that time.

Good. He can weigh in every time

to make a mistake on paint.

I'm counting on him. I'm counting on him.

I know that's one of the fun facts about Jerry.

So so anyway, I figure we should start where it all starts.

And, you know, Bantam.

No, no, actually, federal, federal regulatory.

We're not quarter taught horses.

He's bringing up horses.

I'm dead.

And we're off the rails.

So he's bringing up horses, folks.

Oh, you talk about, you know, back in the day,

you could pick what color your horse was.

And then you go into the early years

to what color your horses.

Oh, my goodness.

They're crushing up berries, making war paint,

paint in the side of the horse.

Hey, whatever floats your boat.

But anyway, so I thought it'd be fun to be like,

why were Model T's for the most part black?

And now we're on his frigging Ford in six weeks of his Ford.

So the reason why they're black is I'm going to go back to the title.

Jeep. Hold on.

Oh, Jeep.

Hey, I'm yourself.

They were black because he was the most frugal person

and black is the cheapest color to spray.

Red is usually the most expensive color.

And I figured it would be just a fun way to bring in that little

tip for those that don't know.

There was also a time where there was some study done for insurance companies

that red is the most pulled over color in the 80s and 90s.

I don't know.

But they when you actually broke down the statistics,

it was one of those where they changed the statistics to look the way they want.

It was also the most popular color.

So that was the most popular vehicle on the road.

And for a while, statistically, of course, it would be the most.

If you had a sporty car, it was red, right?

So that was biased.

I remember that whole life.

But all right.

So Henry Henry Ford after the horses.

Yeah, when he works it in every episode.

Absolutely. It's a game at this point.

And right up to Jeff, I was like, I know what I'm going to do.

I literally said, what are you going to use?

Horsehair brushes to paint the cars or something.

Yeah, I didn't see that coming.

How he brought it in.

That's your loss.

Anyway, so really where we start thinking about Jeeps is World War Two.

And we have all a drab color drab.

Jeff and I just looked at us.

Any who's.

So the other thing I thought would be fun that most people probably don't know.

And only reason I know is because I had way too much six weeks of World War Two Jeeps.

The original hood numbers that the Jeeps were born with were actually olive drab blue

because they decided that that color would disappear in photographs easier

than say bright white.

So when you see a Jeep in a photograph and it has a white hood letters,

that is in the barracks in and on the front lines getting painted

because for those that don't know if you're not getting shot at or run or running

or running to or from your painting things in the army.

So at that time, at that time or greasing things or greasing things.

And the other important thing is that we have people that are like,

well, all of all of drab is all of drab is all of drab.

No, there's a million different shades.

And the Jeeps, when they were getting blown up,

were a thousand different greens, basically, because, you know,

they paint this fender and then, you know, they have to run.

So they're not going to get over there.

I have a question.

Do you have experience painting green?

Too much.

And again, for those that don't know, as the Jeeps progressed,

as we went from one conflict to another, they actually changed the green

depending on the area that they were stationed in.

So, you know, we're 80s babies.

So we remember the tan Humvees and stuff.

That's because we were in desert storm and we're in a desert climate.

Korea has a little bit more darker green than the eastern conflict.

So they had a different green, much to my dismay.

If you had a gray jeep that was almost always a navy,

I don't completely know why they chose that.

Right. I think they had leftover paint from the ships.

And so they just painted the Jeeps.

Yeah, probably.

And I believe that the numbers on those were black.

Again, it's kind of interesting.

There's literally people curating.

There were two Jeeps and they take a layer of paint off at a time

because they want to see if the numbers changed on the hoods as they go back in time.

And they and when they find that blue number,

they like are all related. Yes.

And same thing, they go after the bumpers.

They don't know what company or anything like that it was in

unless they actually uncover it.

So it's it's like a history of the.

Yeah, they're doing archaeology via paint at that point.

100 percent.

And I and I appreciate that.

And my grandfather, who was just a good,

you know, kind of grandfather figure who was into Jeeps

who had served in the Occupation Forces following World War Two.

Painting things.

And he was a tank gunner, but but I was going to lament

the whole painting things conversation.

Yes. You know, to understand people,

people's perspective may be shaped by today's

you know, framework in the sense that, you know, we think about going

to the paint store and getting an aerosol can might be a two part can

where you, you know, you bust a hardener in the in the bottom of it.

That's fancy paint. That's fancy paint.

Or you can get, you know, paint a tractor supply and your spray painting.

These guys had buckets and a brush.

I'm going to go to the comments real quick, because Missing Remote says

they were in Desert Storm Desert Shield.

So thank you for your service.

Were you painting?

Just want to know.

That's fair.

And I mean, the thing with my grandfather and and honestly,

both my grandfathers, you know, it was about if it was flaking,

you scraped it. Otherwise, you just put another layer on it.

It was a it was a gallon or a bucket and a brush.

And you just put another layer on, right?

And that is so foreign by today's overly specified.

You go to any Instagram real or any YouTube

and you're going to have a thousand comments flaming people

on the fact that there was not all this arduous prep work.

And you didn't you didn't scrub for 38 minutes and one.

No, the the Jeep rolled up.

If they dusted it with a cloth, it was it was loved.

That was the most prep work. They got cheap.

That was the Colonel's Jeep.

And otherwise, they cracked open a can that had already been open for five days.

Yes. Skimmed off a little bit of a top layer,

mixed it up and brushed it off because aesthetics didn't matter.

Then it was more about just getting some kind of coating for durability,

some kind of corrosion preventative on there.

It was for really durability at that point.

It was really just to make it blend

into the do the main area of what they were and that's fair.

And that very well could be, you know, there's probably more for just appearances

so they could look cohesive.

I know that easy to maintain in the field.

I guess I'm going with just my grandfather's like like their approach, though.

It was like if one coat was good, another coat was better.

I had raw iron railings that we had like 11 teen coats of black on there.

And I remember painting a house again.

They they had me painting at about 10, 11, 12, and you scraped it.

And that's how we paint it as a society.

We scraped just the big sheets and then you you layered on another layer.

Oh, yeah. And you get a chip of paint and you've got a crater now.

And you're like, well, why is there 10 layers in there?

Correct. Correct.

So just kind of a different social perspective than by today's standards.

And I think that that's so valuable to to kind of keep in perspective.

So that fits us kind of into, you know, post World War Two.

Well, wait, wait, let's go back to the World War Two paint.

What kind of paint was it?

So I believe it was lacquer.

It was a single stage enamel.

Oh, it was enamel. Yeah.

Touche into the fifties.

I know they went to a lacquer style paint.

Does that is that in your notes?

The 45s to the 60s was a two stage paint with a primer and a top coat,

which would be more what you're talking about.

And what I was going to say about the the fifties colors is I think we

we kind of were tired of the black and the drab and the kind of suck

that World War Two was.

So I think that's why you see, you know, bright white cars, bright red.

That's where the reds, blues and yellows.

More fun colors.

They were trying to liven things up and kind of not make it so suck.

And that's why, you know, when I think of a CJ two way,

the first civilian Jeep, most of them seem to be red

or I just found red ones for some reason.

There were some there were some brighter greens or some more desirable greens.

Yep. I think of the fifties having this.

I don't want to I don't exactly want to use the pastel,

but it has more of a pastel flavor as far as I mean, we don't have the series

worth we're totally well, that I was absolutely wanted to bring up the series

because I'm going to go back and we got corrected by Jerry like we expected.

That's fine.

The the most of the early Jeep for a single stage.

And I don't even know how to.

Alkyde Alkyde enamel on the early Jeeps.

Yes.

Um, so just a more technical specification.

And then we got Nate of course,

saying he misses the lead paint because it tastes the better, but whatever.

That's just me.

That's what I was wondering.

Well, I think comments were going to come in.

I'm not overly surprised that they were enamel

because AMC used enamel.

I know that. Right.

But overall, well, I was going to say, I want to make sure we touch

on the series because there might be people who are unfamiliar

with that era.

And as I was mentioning this kind of kind of introduction of pastels

into the fifties and sixties, and I think there was some cultural

relevancy as far as what you're saying, where we were in a rebuilding

process globally, and we wanted a little bit of a softer feel.

We didn't need this heavy military machine anymore.

And that's why some of the movies and stuff, you see a lot of beach,

a lot of fun, they're dancing, that kind of stuff.

And that's what the Surrey was made for.

It was two wheel drive, had a cool fringe top with stripes.

Yep. And I think there was pink, blue and yellow and yellow.

And I can't say Surrey without bringing up our interaction personally

with a Surrey was these twin sisters, sisters.

Their dad bought them a Surrey and they fought over it.

Yes. And the boys that would show for them around.

And yes. So later in life, they got a Surrey and they went through

the Willys group together, of course, with matching clothes.

Yes. And they were the sweetest.

They were adorable.

And it was one of the best Jeep community experiences that you and I had

that really rounds out the Jeep culture. Right.

And with the wide white walls of bright chrome hubcaps.

Yeah, because it wasn't just about off road.

It wasn't about just, you know, we get into the originality event.

These guys were like, well, it has to be exactly this.

This was about these sisters reliving the romance of their teenage years.

Quite literally and figuratively.

And they were just they had big personalities

and they brought the Surrey out for all of us to enjoy.

And it was such a beautiful representative or survivor.

And I think they ended up selling it

eventually to fund some health related stuff.

But that was a great time with it.

They had a great time

and they certainly made a huge impact on us.

And now we're sharing it with our listeners. Absolutely.

Their story goes on.

And so since we can't bring up

Blacker was for how paint was on Jeeps because they were cheap and used enamel.

I have to tell a little bit of a lacquer story

because my dad grew up in the 50s and the 60s

and he sprayed lacquer 98 percent of the time.

And that's where the fancy paint jobs, the the custom colors,

that kind of stuff really got their start

because he would spray like 10 coats of lacquer.

And you had to when you actually got done spraying it was almost opaque.

It wasn't really shiny.

And then you had to sand it and buff it out

in order for it to get that deepness and that shine that they're known for.

But the problem with lacquer is it's brittle.

And if you bump it, if panel gaps are quite not right

or if the body flexes, it literally cracks and starts to fall off in sheets.

So that is the downfall of lacquer.

The other thing I thought would be fun to talk about

that I found most people don't know.

And I believe this was a Jeep thing.

I don't think AMC created it,

but we always built Jeeps to be kind of a tool.

And we got to make sure they were put together and put out quickly.

So you put it together and then you spray it.

Yes. And that means that between panels

and that kind of stuff, you don't really have any coverage.

So if you take your fender off your CJ five

and it hasn't been taken apart before,

you're going to literally hear a pink oak

and you're going to crack that seal.

And there should be rust and bare steel somewhere

between that to that seam.

And they still basically do that today.

So that's why if you take your hinges off or any of that stuff,

there is no paint underneath that hinge

because they look at it as, well, we don't if we put everything together.

Now we're not marring the hardware.

We put a good coat of paint over it.

It seals that edge and off to the races we go.

Absolutely.

Now in the comments here,

we've got Gino saying Mercedes Benz is developing a solar paint.

And we'll actually talk a little bit more about that

as we get through into the future of paint.

Yes. But I just wanted to make mention that we did see that comment.

We did. And we will attempt to address it

despite this riveting conversation about lacquer paint cracking.

I would love to take a moment and tell people about U-joints

if anybody would like.

Now we're going to continue on.

Oh, because we got to move into the 70s and 80s.

Yes, 70s was pretty much the same.

Still enamel, still assembling them, spraying them.

But we did have some bright colors come out again.

We had orange.

That's also where urethane base paints was introduced.

And that's the multi-stage coatings with urethane paint.

So the next level.

I just absolutely know nothing about enamel, lacquer, urethane.

I that's amazing.

I'm sitting through this podcast right now

recognizing how much I don't know.

So you don't know. I just don't.

And I love I love that through this business.

I've learned appreciation.

You know, obviously Greg, our lead performance mechanic,

worked in the paint and body world prior to coming here.

I recognize appropriate paint processes.

But because I just have no interest in it,

it's not something a knowledge base that I pursued.

You know, what I learned really early on trying to build my model cars

with my dad, if you spray enamel

and then you put lacquer over top of it, bad things happen.

Oh, it just slips off or something, right?

Wrinkles up like something.

Yes, because lacquer is hotter of a paint,

more solvent than the enamel.

And it attacks it.

I have I am conscious of those things,

but it's the beauty of why we are a highly functional business

and we have this process of quality paint companies that we work with.

And this is what I always try to tell people, like, we're not trying to hide anything.

We're not a paint shop necessarily yet.

And arguably we subcontract to a number plug there yet.

We subcontract to a number of high quality

business who are experts in their field, you know,

because I'm learning so much today in this process.

And the reason that your theme base was introduced

is because they were looking for a better UV protection.

And we talked a little bit about that with the UV and eating through.

Which makes sense that all these these incredibly muted colors

that I know the the 40s, 50s and early 60s they had.

But then by the time that, you know, they're prevalent to me,

they're very muted, they're sun-fated, they're baked, they're problematic.

And it is important that I really think the metallic start out

in the 60s and 70s.

That's where you see the really pretty blues with metallic 70s and 80s.

With the metallics and the pearlescent finishes began to appear.

I want to break it down.

What for our listeners?

When you say metallic, let's let's say they don't understand

because obviously I I painted my first car of metallic gray.

So what is metallic or or pearlescent?

So metallic is going to have actually a little metal

part like metal flake metal particular paint.

And when you go to spray that, you actually have to spray it

at the right pattern and and pressure to make that flake

stand up or lay down in the orientation that you want,

which is why if you have a metallic painted car

and you go to try to paint a fender, it's going to have a bad time

because you don't always know the way it was done before that.

And the more custom you do it, the harder it will be.

Same way with the pearlescent.

That is an additive that you add to the paint as you're mixing it.

And it gives it a pearl or kind of an effect

that, again, is only dependent on how it was sprayed, temperature.

All that stuff makes it basically get a one and done shot at it.

And it has to be, which, again, this first car that I did at 15

was a metal flake silver, which, of course, I mean, silver.

Silver has a lot of flaking at the start, correct.

And we added more flake to it. Of course you did.

Because if a little bit is good, then a lot is better in the Simpson,

you know, mantra. I'm really surprised you repainted silver from red.

I did. But it was a muted red.

And I was convinced that I was going to get pulled over constantly.

Of course you did. Neither here nor there.

That was that was a rumor.

And you did get pulled over constantly.

But that was not related to the color.

See, I did not need any help is what it comes down to.

I didn't need help in the process.

I also didn't use his dome light going down the road

because I didn't get pulled over.

I'm sure of it. That's 100 percent true.

Get out of my head, Scott.

So. So I absolutely.

And that was why our prep process had to be so rigorous.

Yeah, because when we're doing a full color change, we're doing a full color

change, but also the heavy metal particular, the heavy metal flake

when we went to shoot it, we needed to be able to shoot at one consistent rate.

And if you you haven't lived until you sprayed silver so heavy

that it runs the flake and you can see it really

gather in lows and highs on the paint.

That don't ask me how I know that.

I was going to say, that is not what mine looked like.

I would love to know.

I mean, I think that car has probably been turned into a pop can in Asia at this point.

But yeah, that's the fate of that car needed to be.

But I really would love to see what that paint looked like today.

You know, all right, you don't.

Yeah, I do. I do.

I've done such a good job.

So if we jump to the nineties.

Yep, that is the clear coat revolution.

Yes. And they didn't know how to properly do that.

I've heard a multitude of different reasons.

Reds and whites were really the biggest offenders of the clear

just falling off in sheets.

That's where we started finding our first vehicle

so you could literally take an air gun and blow out the paint

and it would come off in big chunks.

I've heard everything from the paint underneath.

The clear was too hard and the clear couldn't grab it.

That the clear wasn't well made.

Multitude of different things.

There are solvents still in the base coat when they cleared it.

Yes, 10 different businesses or individuals

who get 10 different stories. Absolutely.

But any event, they came off in sheets

and then that initial color layer

because they were able to put a clear protectant over it

was the crappiest paint ever.

So the minute your clear went away,

your base coat was was done.

And there's a myth that you can go and

read clear the base, not in my experience.

At least maybe if you like the moment it fails

because the base coat is gone and a blink of an eye.

And next thing you know, you have the cool rust patina.

And that's when Neil starts to like it.

Yes, that's only when I'm interested.

That's the the cutting creams and all of that came out

and you could move the clear around.

But really, you're just dragging the base and sparing it and made a mess.

It's all bad.

I I still, you know, talking about exactly that,

I attempted to wax a car.

I had I had literally I had literally started

my automotive experience when I was 12 with mopeds

and go carts and stuff like that.

And building them.

And then I, you know, I got my first car at 15

and then the Jeeps and whatnot.

And I did a Monte Carlo with a friend and a whole bunch of stuff.

I had this great mixed experience working in the automotive field,

not as a student, but as an enthusiast.

And I still distinctly remember attempting to wax a car

as like an 18 year old.

And I still remember like bringing the car to the high school.

Were you doing wax on, wax off?

I don't even know.

Yes, you were.

You absolutely were trying to imitate that.

I know you were.

It was so terrible when I got it into the sunshine.

And I still remember like some guys walking over and being like,

look how awful that is, you know,

swirl the crap out of it, swirl the crap out of it.

And I still remember being like, I have done engine swaps.

I have rebuilt engine.

I was like, again, I didn't go to the Voed or the tech school.

It's a tough mistress, the pain.

I had done so much

automatically and I couldn't wax a car.

And really, that's a good way to tell what kind of paint

you have on your old car.

If you go to wax it and your rag turns the color of the car.

Yes, that's an ammo.

Pretty much.

If you don't, then it's got a clear coat over top of it.

And if you suddenly do, well, guess what?

You've gone through the clear coat at this point.

Well, and that's I have no idea.

I kind of even don't remember the car, necessarily.

I just remember the feeling of failure because I was like,

man, I don't have any idea how to wax this car, how to work with this paint.

It was so easy to cut through that clear, though, on the accident.

I mean, I can't tell you how many times I'd be trying to do the wax job

and trying to make it look nice and clean and appropriate.

And as I'm waxing, I start to see the faint color

in this the slush of the wax.

That's not good.

I went too deep. Oh, God, right.

Right. All right.

So we move through.

We also, I think it's in value.

I think it's valuable to mention that the actual metal,

the metal energy that we were using, obviously, in our oldest vehicles

was of such high high purity content.

We've talked about this to this day that we can remove hinges

and we can remove lug nuts.

We can remove bolts

despite the fact that they've been happily affixed for darn near

100 years in some situations, 60 years.

Yeah. And and other than cracking the paint or distorting it

in some capacity, you know, relatively unbolts and bolts back together.

Whereas are the metal

energy by the 80s and then the 90s gets watered down.

And so the rust.

So as soon as we burn through that clear and base now,

that patina is not exactly that.

It's just flat out rust.

Yes. And rusting from the inside out

or the way that panels are layered, you know, is is challenging.

Think of your YJs and then, especially T.J.

fenders and the manner in which the panels are layered, the quality of metal

they were using, the way that schmutz can kind of get up and creep in

between the panels that literally rust from the inside out through the paint.

They added foam in between like on T.J.

fenders between the inner structure and the outer structure.

They literally put foam in there.

The cavities of Cherokees.

Yeah. And of course, because because as a society,

we were trying to make our vehicles less utilitarian and more mass consumption.

And so ultimately, we needed them to be a little quieter.

We needed them to have some sound deadening and some that kind of robust

sponge would have dried out quicker.

I am curious if Jerry has any way in on that,

if he has any, if there was a specific reason why

that kind of stuff started taking because they needed to sell them in our

deep in five years anyway.

So in the 90s is when we started seeing other cool colors again

into the 2000s.

I remember like T.J.

As we literally have a T.J.

on property, it's a purple pearl paint.

The guy was very excited about that.

There was I was going to say, I think we've done a tremendous

disservice to a large swath of Mopar enthusiasts and not mentioning

plum crazy and the well, that's the Mopar side, not technically the jeep side.

So there is a fringe group of our listeners.

If you want to be, you know, you want to talk about what I'll talk

about the big bad colors.

If we want to talk about actually are, you know, the right seam of things.

So before we get into the colors, Jerry did weigh in.

He says automotive paint is a true science and is very vulnerable

to so many failure factors that are continually being addressed

by the manufacturers as the materials evolve.

And I think that's exactly it.

The materials, both that with their painting and their painting with.

So just how they're being applied and who's painting it, right?

What's painting it?

Robots were started painting it by the, you know, at some point in the 90s.

So in the late 60s in the muscle car era,

we had to get people's attention by all means possible.

So we had to have loud exhaust.

We had a big motors and they have for the AMC side.

They had the big bad colors.

They had blue, orange and green that were used on the performance cars.

And then they also did red, white and blue cars for their racing and that

kind of stuff on to the Mopar side.

We had plum crazy purple at just because someone weighed in.

We got Brilla vision through trying to hold back tears.

Tank green as one of your big bad colors.

Well, I was getting there.

I know, but I really wanted to value his input as a listener.

And just we're about 20 years too early.

That's OK. Anyway, there was orange.

There was there were vibrant colors.

There were vibrant colors.

There's literally was an ad for this in the 60s for Chrysler that had a car.

It was chopped up into many different colors that were all about six inches

wide, and it was every color you could get on that model.

And it's the entire length of the car.

And so the only reason I really wanted to bring it up is because because in the 80s,

following who knows what the heck happened globally and domestically.

All of the vehicles turned to poop, brown and ugly red and like maroon.

It was a tough time.

It was a dark time.

And so when you talk about re-releasing colors in the 90s,

I wanted that perspective to go from the 60s and 70s

where we got to the pastels, the lightness, then the boldness.

Yeah. And then the poop browns.

So it did be fair because by the time we saw the browns,

they were not very attractive.

No, if you go in the golds, the whole thing, but not like a good gold,

like a mustardy, colonel mustard.

In the time of their era, you got to imagine what,

you know, shag carpet and all that kind of panel walls. Absolutely.

Yeah. But that specific brown with a high metallic that was clean

and shiny and pretty, like it would have been on the lot, brand new,

actually isn't that bad.

You let it age to the where we started seeing them in a field

and it's just brown and somebody's painted it 14 times with,

you know, red oxide primer and any brown they could find.

Absolutely. It took terrible.

But if you go back and you find the original untouched

and you polish it out, it isn't terrible.

I can understand we're attracted to someone to buy it initially,

just in age. Well, I feel like

now I just heard like you trying to explain to your child

why they should eat their Brussels sprouts.

That's all I literally heard.

Yeah, Brussels sprouts.

And I like Brussels sprouts, but I mean, explaining it to like a five year old

me like, well, they're not terrible.

If you put enough cheese and butter and hot sauce and bacon.

So in the late like 78, 79

and it's off topic again, but it's a GMC truck.

They had the most awful green was not metallic.

I was really hoping we were going to talk about fall guy, but OK.

That truck was brown. I know.

Well, I know that's why I thought you were going to fall guy.

And I was excited. I was there for it.

And then that green truck, the green got awful.

It was just there was nothing exciting about it.

It was just green.

It wasn't an attractive color green. GMC, you're saying.

Yeah, I don't remember this.

You have trust me.

I remember the Ford green of that era.

Well, they had one as well.

That was also hideous.

It was like a forest, but not even an attractive forest.

Exactly. 100 percent.

Yeah, but you got me all excited.

I thought we were going to talk about fall guy.

I mean, who drove a poop brown pick em up truck,

but at least it was cool what he did with it.

I'm going to fast forward us a little bit in time into the 2000s now.

I was trying to keep us on track. I know I was not.

I know. I know.

I like to hear about the viscosity and

all friction modifiers and oil.

We're getting the stuff that you actually know.

All right. Specialized coatings and powder coat.

Well, real quick, since we're in the 90s,

he said Jeff has thrown his production notes.

Let me talk about wiring and environmental

sealants on your wiring in the 80s and I would like to talk about that, folks.

There's a tie in. So of course, there's a tie in.

I started talking about on RTJs.

There was that cool purple pearl.

They also had a green that was also on the Cherokees.

That was a very cool metallic green, kind of like a rescue green, but not quite.

We literally, me and my wife went to try to buy a Cherokees specifically

because it was that color. What year Cherokee are you trying to tell me?

97 to 99 ish.

So not the green I had.

No, not because that was hideous.

Correct. OK, I was going to say,

don't try and tell me that color was good.

My my my 97 was ugly ascent.

This had some pearl in it.

It was a really cool color.

I only seen, honestly, like two or three cars.

OK, that color. That's fine.

You get into later.

We have the orange back again on the TJ.

So why I bring this up is we started to paint Jeeps

a cool color to get attention to get it to sell a new market demographic.

And as we pushed into the JK, they went off the rails with that.

100 percent. We had custom colors.

We that we then see the birth in the TJ of the Black Creek Jeep Group,

the White Jeep Group, the Blue Jeep Group.

And that just lit up even more in the JK, where we had special blues.

And then we had people arguing that you weren't blue enough for the blue group.

Well, absolutely.

And and you're not actually gray or blue, so you can't be part of the gray group.

And but you're still not blue enough for the blue group.

I absolutely went off the rails at some point.

You know, it did. It did.

And I think it's so funny because I think you you marked it perfectly

in the sense that previously these were two utilitarian vehicles.

Absolutely. And as they wanted to further the the market demographic

of consumers, they recognized they had to attract people through paint.

Yeah, tire wheel packages and paint.

Because otherwise, those of us who are cut from the cloth where I am,

you basically got a handful of dull colors with the same aluminum wheel.

And you were supposed to be happy about that.

Yeah. And just for Joe, yes, they had tank green.

It was like a two year only color.

It was a homage to the olive drab, but it was shiny.

And there were literally just tank green groups.

Yes. Not all greens.

No. And if you went in there with a regular green and tried to post,

they would flame the crap out of you.

Yes. And make you leave.

You had you had a place in your heart for those tank green.

I did. You had a green Jeep at one time.

I did. And there was also a release.

There was a commando tan.

There was a tan Jeep that was released.

Yep. There was a gray as well.

They recognize the power of marketing paint and and color.

And and having that paint have a neat or cool name

that people then would come on to.

It was great marketing.

And they're still doing it.

And the paint was pretty decent.

We had actually started to get a number of things right

other than the actual metal products themselves.

As far as hinge, you know, aluminum with steel and no protection.

And and that is obviously where the where things go sideways.

We didn't learn anything from the TJ tailgate hinges.

No, which I mean, think about the the corrosion

and bimetal oxidation, which is basically when you're putting

aluminum and steel in a raw factor near each other.

We we dealt with this in TJs,

specifically with their tailgate hinges.

And yet we thought it would be such a good idea.

They would make the side the door hinges this way.

So wild, wild, you know, wild decision at the mothership level.

So then we get into, again, the craze, the JK starts.

You get all the aftermarket accessories.

Now, people can go put stuff on in their driveway.

And that's where the powder coating stuff starts.

Yes. And Jeffrey, you're off.

So powder coating was a more durable finish for off-road use.

And that's what they were marketing it for.

So it was designed with the intent to be more.

Is that better? Yes.

Designed with the intent to be.

That's a good way to rephrase that.

And you'll see that really took off on bumpers, skids and items

that were meant to hit stuff on the trail.

And really, it was more so the fact

that you could take a product that was made 15 minutes ago

and you could hang it on some hooks.

You could dust on this powder.

Walking into an oven and within a half an hour,

those parts were done and dry.

And then after they cooled off, you could then package and chip them.

That is where powder coat really got its.

And it's hold.

It wasn't so much for the durability.

It was because of speed to market.

Well, and I think I think there is actually a conversation

to durability as well, because if powder coat is done right,

the science of it is a very durable totally.

But most of the cheaper aftermarket products

are not trying to do a quality powder coat.

They're doing the quick get a coat to get it out the door.

Even the most I worked at a place for a while

where they made tanks and they would shot blast the tank.

Not not not the kind that go boom in wars, folks.

No, like a like a air compressor tank or a propane tank.

And they would literally shot blast the tanks

and then powder coat them.

And some got called coded multiple times

because they couldn't see what color they were doing and things changed.

But anyway, they would still rust where anything was joined.

I need sharp edge.

I think sharp edge.

You have less powder there where a weld is.

Yep. It just naturally pulls away from.

Yep. And they even with that nice process, it still wouldn't last.

I think part of the challenge

what from being in business professionally at that time,

I feel like powder coat was

a degree of immediate gratification or a

almost a direct push against cheap paint.

Well, because if you were a good painter

and you could honestly prep your prep that bumper, take the time.

So use your analogy of, hey, I just built this bumper.

If you were to actually go through the prep process

and buy the correct paint and spend the expensive amount of money and time

and do the paint process the way that you're supposed to.

I'd actually, I would argue, would be more durable

than most of the powder coat work we saw done takes a week longer.

Correct. To get to use that bumper.

Correct. Where like those tanks, for example,

they come off the the powder coat line

and they were immediately put on a pallet, shrink wrapped and going on a truck.

Now, something else that I'm going to bring up

that really started to come about in the 2000s, early 2000s

and seems to be launching even more now

would be your rhino linings and that kind of coating.

That really because if the powder coating was durable

and truck bed liner was durable,

why not paint our jeeps with truck bed liner?

And that's really where you first start to see that come out.

And the one thing that is kind of a resounding theme

of this whole of this whole discussion today is the prep work.

And we saw a myriad of businesses offering the truck bed liner

and they oversold it in massive conversations. Right? Yes.

This is I mean, you had Armadillo liner, you had hard liner.

Line X, line X, you had rhino linings.

And it is only as good as your prep work.

And that is just flat out the kind of the line in the sand.

And the next thing is, is how does that have tooth?

Which tooth means is how does it grip onto the surface below it?

Like on a bed, if you have a paint and even if you scotch

brighted it, if it didn't get down into the nooks and crannies

and wasn't able to grab onto that surface, it would come off in sheets.

Oh, yeah, you get the bubbling of the of it.

You literally have like the pocket, the pocket so you could poke

the liner and it would just kind of where and I've done this.

If you have bare steel that was like sanded with a pretty aggressive grit

and then you bed lined it, you could not take it off of the chisel.

Right. Because it is so here.

Now, the problem with that is that adherence makes you think, OK,

now it's protected from, say, water intrusion

because of the porosity of and the shape of the liner.

It was not designed to be all your coating in one.

It was designed to be a protectant on top.

So once you did that, if you laid it out there,

it would start to rust in the pockets of the liner.

And obviously I was using cheap liner because I was a kid

and didn't have tons of money and I wasn't spraying it professionally.

But you don't have the protection then.

So you still have to prime it.

You still have to have that underlying protection.

There's a conversation.

We use the the analogy DTM direct to metal paints.

Then there is a two part paint where you actually need an adhesion promoter of sorts.

And these are all things that Jerry had mentioned as far as

when the science of the science, there are development.

You can't just go to Walmart and buy a paint,

despite the fact that Instagram has made it wildly popular.

And by this paint and then all of a sudden shoot your patio furniture.

Willy-nilly, you you you arguably have to know what kind of paint,

whereas, you know, what environmental factors to be considered,

what kind of prep, you know, that kind of stuff.

There is more to it.

Sort of on Jeff's thing with the powder coat,

another craze that we went through was plastic dipping wheels and that kind of stuff.

And what plastic dip started as is you would have a pair of pliers.

The handles would be bare.

You wanted something of that kind of nicer to your hand.

You would dip it in there and let it dry.

Hence the dip.

And then you have a coating on the handles and someone somewhere says,

well, why can't I paint my car with that?

Put that into an aerosol.

So they did.

And then the whole of like, oh, you can just remove it now.

It's actually not out there.

It's been in the sun and UV and all that kind of stuff.

And I mean portions of it removed.

Well, it depends on how patient you want to be.

Right. Absolutely.

So then we're going to fast forward

because we're running low on time to 2010s.

What became popular in 2010 era?

Well, I think he's kind of jumped around and said

I'm plastic dip was absolutely a big, a big push at that time.

Let's I'm going to emphasize.

No, I want I want Scott to guess because I think he could do it.

A I thought we were short on time.

A protective coating or protective coating, ceramic coating.

Ceramic coating. Yes.

Yeah, because I don't care.

But here I am. Yeah.

Yeah. Ceramic coating.

Very popular.

And it's still today is a I don't think that is pain.

I think of that as wax or protectant.

But I agree.

But they're actually painting a ceramic coating on at the factory level now.

So it is actually true because that is actually one of the big pieces,

as you were mentioning, of going forward.

Well, again, I was aware that there's some paint protection packages.

Right. They absolutely upsell them.

You know, a lot when you go to the dealership and they up church,

like it smells nice in your vehicle.

And that's like you pay extra like 50 bucks for that.

These paint protection packages.

I want to go to the deal if I'm going to buy the dealership,

which most people know, I don't.

But they don't sell patina vehicles.

They'll sell patina vehicles there.

But I'm just like you painted the vehicle.

You shouldn't have to upsell me on the fact that you did your job.

Your job was to paint the vehicle.

So it doesn't rust on me because I'm about to give you a ton of money.

That's a dealership trying to, again, show value for money or that.

Absolutely.

To us, I think that's more of a dealership per dealership thing

more than the OE manufacturer.

But but OE even is trying to build in more protective

the ceramic protection with the hydrophobic properties.

And they gave us aluminum hinges on the side

and now aluminum doors that are corroding.

So of course, they have to do something to show that they care.

And somebody's a little salty over there.

They absolutely are as I as I oftentimes say,

humans are always kind of living in ripple effects.

And we absolutely are dealing with this ripple effects,

especially with the JLJT, with these massive corrosion issues.

My sting gray Jeep has a lot of bubbles.

And I'm salty.

How do we create consumer confidence?

We have to come up with upsells of we're going to now do a protective

ceramic coating at the factory, manufacturing level.

Just paint my vehicle.

If I'm paying you that much, I like pieces of crap.

But if I'm going to pay you that much money for a new piece of crap,

it should actually be nice.

Just paint it. That's your job.

Here's my call to action.

Someone, please, for the love of God,

make some steel doors and tailgates for these Jeeps already

so that the aftermarket can fix where the OE went wrong.

The sins of the OE and five to 10 years

when we have vehicles with doors literally rotting off of them.

But the rest of it's fine.

We can go buy this door, paint it and put it on the truck.

Right. Or the car or on the Jeep.

Right. Please.

Some type of replacement panel.

So what's the future of Jeep look like, Jeffery?

Self-healing paint.

Jeep is rumored to be currently experimenting with self-healing paint.

There's it's kind of a few different options out there.

There's more of the elastic polymer

where the outer coating is actually softer

so that as it gets little scratches,

swirl marks, whatever, pinstripes, the sun bakes on it,

heats it up and it kind of molds itself back into place

and hides those sins.

Now, some of this technology exists already.

Yeah, I remember seeing a thing on that years and years ago.

Right. But now Jeep is experimenting with application

and different ways to make it work for Jeep.

And so you've got that.

There's the micro capsule technology,

which I was I was telling Scott a little bit about

if you think of a McGriddle from McDonald's,

it's got the little serp pockets in it at a micro level.

That's what this pain is.

It's got little pockets of uncured resin in it

so that when it gets damaged, those pockets rupture

and fill the void that was created by that damage.

You know what this means, though?

It could possibly the death of Patina.

Yes, it could.

It could. But there's I mean,

so you've got the ability for the UV or heat activation.

You've got the ability for the micro pockets.

There is the experimentation with solar,

which was talked about in our comments,

where the solar paint essentially has

the electromagnetic properties to create energy

just from being there.

Yeah, photogenic properties that absorb energy

and recharge a battery in the process.

Paints are ready, very, very expensive.

If we make it able to conduct electricity or heal itself,

how are we ever going to afford to paint it?

You know, I think it's but the value of that is

that you shouldn't have to continuously repaint

and you don't have to pay as exorbitant of cost

to have repairs done

if you're one that likes that flawless look.

I'm fascinated by, in general,

just as a piece that we can share with our listening base

that good paint is not cheap.

God, I don't actually understand that, right?

But from a business person's perspective,

I am conscious of that.

We don't sell paint ourselves,

but we're very in tune with what's happened in the industry

and an attempt to find suitable alternatives

to what's available.

You know, this is kind of a fun way to look at it.

So back in the day when we were growing up,

you'd always hear about Earl Scheib, 99, 99 paint job.

Yep.

That is five thousand dollars at this point.

Yeah, I mean, a Mako job.

Earl Scheib eventually turns into Mako on a coast to coast

kind of acceptance.

So if you're listening to us, you might might have heard of Mako,

but Earl Scheib was the first.

Yeah. And you're right.

I mean, that's a two to five thousand dollar paint job.

And that you're just getting a spray in and go.

And if you want a really quality, nice

something we can be proud of it, it's going to last a while.

You're starting at ten thousand, in my opinion.

And you're going to almost 30, I would say.

And then you've got your really custom finishes go up from there.

Yeah, that's insane.

Correct. And which is why most of my cars have primer on them.

But but if you if you're looking at the future

and you're talking about why why would the self

healing paint actually be beneficial to get on some of these production vehicles?

Realistically, it's the resale value.

It's not I, you know, obviously my my truck, I'm going to go beat it off road.

I don't care about the paint.

It is what it is.

I the bruises tell stories kind of thing.

But you're a patina guy.

Yeah. But if I was buying a hundred thousand dollar wagon here

and I want to trade that in in two years, three years,

like a lot of people do, you don't want

all those scratches and those flaws to be visible when you go to the trade in.

So if you've got a self healing paint on there,

it goes back to the dealership looking flawless.

That means it can resell for way more.

So the dealership is going to give you more for your trade in.

Yeah, so there's a long term value added bonus to that kind of.

Yeah, it does not depreciate the same way that our vehicles.

I mean, we used to consider a 30 percent depreciation

from the the point of leaving the dealership lot.

Right. And I think this changes it.

You can if you can, you know, kind of reduce some of that depreciation

for the consumer, they will arguably say, yes, I value this.

That's an interesting perspective.

Yeah. And I think you're going to see when that kind of stuff rolls out,

you're going to see it in the Jeep world and when it rolls out,

you're going to see it on the higher ends, the three ninety twos,

the wagon ears, the grand Cherokee limited, you know,

things that are going to cost more money to begin with.

I really like the idea of the the solar, you know, kind of process to be regenerative.

Again, that appeals to my kind of.

Industrialist nature that I want to push the bounds of electric electrification.

I think I think that one is further out because of the efficiency nature of it.

At what?

Definitely cool, though.

Yeah, it's really, really well.

And it would help sustain range issues that we oftentimes talk about,

considering we just talked about that last week or so. Right.

Well, there's a lot of different options for that as well.

As imagine putting a steel roof on your house that then somehow makes your house

power. Yes. Yeah.

I mean, there's a bunch of different options that that specific

you're going to be an industry onto itself. Correct.

And I hope that one day it does kind of become.

I mean, I see the the value and I think that probably as we advance our paint

technologies, we'll probably have to do one or the other initially.

And I think that Jeffrey talking about the self healing

probably will get advanced over the, you know, kind of the solar induced paint

just based on that, that valuation, that resale value and the ability

to it will maintain and keep my vehicle looking as new as possible.

That's a cool perspective.

I think over and this is my prediction over the next five years,

you're going to see a lot of solar paint options at shows and events.

But I don't think you see that roll out in the next five years.

I think you see the self healing paint rolling out in production

within the next five years of Jeep.

I agree with you, especially with a lot of these paint protection

and Jeep trying desperately to regain their relevancy

and jumpstart sales that have largely struggled over the last few years.

And I just wanted to reiterate we're specifically mentioning this on Jeep

because I know that these paint types exist out in other markets.

Well, we're always higher at markets, but they do.

We're always we're always learning from other higher other markets out there.

All right, this was a good one.

I hope that you cared about it because I certainly didn't.

And that you thought it was beneficial.

If you do, we would encourage you to

go ahead and and make sure you like and maybe leave us a review

on your favorite streaming platform.

Additionally, consider sharing it with a friend, family or your local

Jeep group to kind of get them into a whole snoozefest about paint.

Because, you know, this was Neil's least favorite topic of the year.

I know, I thought the guys did great.

And it is one that clearly our community cares about.

Just not me.

He's just bland because he's got a silver Jeep and just blends into the background.

It's just so boring.

I just today's paint is so

like the color palettes by the mass consumption is so bland and boring.

Which is why I love the series and I think that's why I love that Jeep's

been putting out those unique colors like Tuscadero or rain, which is a new

purple that yes, yes, you know, there's some really cool colors

that pop against the majority of which is of itself such a Jeep thing.

We are the the the enthusiasts, the community who is going.

We are driving point A to point B, but we want to do it with style.

We want to then know that if we're going to point A to point B,

we can also go off road in the process and still get to point B.

You know what I mean?

We are that group.

And Giaga Jeepers just made a paint drying comment saying, wasn't as bad as watching.

And on that note, Jeep family, Jeep on, Jeep on.

Couldn't have said it better myself, right?

I know that's why I had to share that last last minute comment

because I was like, I was like, wow, that's just perfect for you.

Yes. Oh, without question.

Let me suck down my my 11th cough drop.

I know, I'm not happy that I'm sitting next to you.

I kept going to them.

Can people hear me moving around in between my teeth?

Then like, am I crunching on it?

Yes, I can. Oh, OK, well.

They probably when they when they heard that we were talking about pay,

they probably shut it off 55 minutes ago.

So whatever, we got bigger numbers than we've had for a couple of weeks.

That's because I right.

Because again, I'm wrong.

All I know is that this is going to out do the flat telling episode.

Yeah, as it should.

So let me why don't you care about flat towing?

I want to know why does nobody care about flat towing?

Because paint's more fun than I don't understand it.

Why am I the weird?

Try is more fun.

Why am I the weird?

I just don't understand.

Why am I wrong? I don't know.

So anyway, I want to get us back on topic.

So Saturday, I it was a beautiful day

when I hadn't broke the 36 out of winter jail

and we went out for a drive, had a nice dinner.

You had it away for winter jail already. Well, you're the worst.

It's always on this time of year.

It's always this could be the last.

I mean, the fact that he's gotten better at this is very remarkable,

but you're still the worst. Yeah.

Anyways, so down to Sunday, Jeff came over

and got his working whip and got us done on the.

You were the one cracking the whip

because you just stood there watching.

What are you talking about?

You guys managed to do it before the monsoon.

Yeah. Nice.

We I was worried about you guys by two o'clock around.

Jeff was a machine.

Nice. It was very efficient.

Hour and a half of us.

I pretty much an hour and a half.

I was just trying to give him everything he needed.

Like, you need power. Here's some power.

Here you need some water. Here's some water.

You need me to.

He was a great errand boy.

He was a great co-co-co-co.

You wander around and just loosely tell you facts while you work.

No, it wasn't facts.

It was well, I'm really concerned that we're going to run out of this.

I think this is I'm worried about this

and I just had to keep reassuring as I'm going up.

We're got it. We we're going to make this work.

We had to count bags of concrete a couple of times.

We did. We did.

Somehow we ended up with an extra bag.

I still don't understand it

because we were going to be seven short

and then we were one positive.

OK, OK, I made some changes to strategies

to make sure we utilize our materials appropriately.

And I was very worried because the ground was very wet

and we poured some in and it was just water

that was slightly gray colored.

And I said, I've done a trust.

You trust the process.

You're going to like to build there.

The first hole I dumped four bags of dry concrete mix in.

Uh-huh.

There was no evidence of any concrete in that hole.

Nice. And I'm like,

well, we need to modify what we're doing here

because this isn't going to work.

We are going to run out of concrete this way.

See why I was worried about concrete.

There was a lot of water.

My concrete guy was worried.

So I'm like, but the hole was very deep,

deeper than it needed to be.

And there was a lot of water in it.

And I'm like, this this might be a problem.

Oh, boy.

And I will tell you before the monsoon happened,

it did look appropriate.

And I am still very traumatic triggered.

We're going to have bad things.

I just had them body like Jeff's like,

once it's poured, water is good.

Once it's poured, water is good.

But we was I was it was pouring.

I was like, please, please don't hurt my concrete.

The nice thing is that they are underground footers.

So water coming down on the surface of it, it doesn't matter.

Yes, too much water is bad.

But as long as we got it poured and got it set and we did use the mixer,

we actually did mix most of the cement.

It was just the first couple bags of

there's so much water was to throw some dry in there to absorb some of this water.

And appropriately, he's going to have good solid footers.

One more. Good. Excellent.

So that that and that.

Sheldon and I just tried to prep for a pending doom of the four letter word,

cleaning things and throwing stuff away and finding homes for things

and that kind of stuff as well.

You know, yeah.

Give them shutters over there.

I don't understand you.

I mean, I get it. I do. But.

Fun goes away.

It gets dark so early and dark in the morning, the dark times.

You're the worst.

Well, I'm glad that you guys got it done before the monsoon.

I really was thinking about you guys and, you know, hoping

that you had accomplished what you accomplished.

Now, the one thing you did mention about 36, which.

You know, folks who are falling along on your personal social media.

May or may not know, but I certainly recognized.

Yeah, was what I put the hood back on.

I didn't know you had a hood for that car.

You did, too.

I did not.

I saw the photo. I'm like, what's on that?

Is that a hood?

He's got a hood for that.

We were moving stuff around the other day, not yesterday,

but a couple of days before that.

And Amy's like, can we just put the hood on the car?

Yeah, why did she want the hood on?

Gets it out of the way out of the way.

It's so much cooler without a hood on it.

That's true.

100 percent.

But I was like, fine, it actually goes on pretty fast.

Like, literally, I started the car up back to the driveway

as it was warming up.

I put the hood on.

It's just been avoiding it because it was cool without it.

You don't have any side panels, though, right?

You can still I have them.

They're not primed to match the other paint.

And because of prior trauma of priming my vehicles,

multiple different colors and then hitting them called a cow.

Yes. I'm not doing that.

Well, OK, let's be honest.

And the thing is, folks who are following along

do not really get the appreciation of what your grandma

looked like, but your grandma did look like a cow.

It was blue, a gray primer and red oxide primer

until my wife, then what she was a girlfriend then,

sideswiped my dad's van and with the quarter.

And then we painted the quarters, reprimed them gray.

Yeah. So then at least it was just two colors instead of three.

Yeah, but it did.

It it it was it was not good.

And it was that way for 15 plus years.

It's still that way.

Oh, get out of here.

That's funny.

If anything was ever more AMC

gremlin than that, I don't know what is.

But that's just kind of embodies the whole vehicle.

So when I went to prime things on the 36, I was like,

I need to prime them a color that sort of blends in with the rest of the car

so it doesn't look God awful while I'd never paint it.

Uh huh. Well, I never paint it.

Yep. Oh, my gosh.

Yeah, I thought that was pretty interesting to see the hood back in in the mix.

And where do you have that stored for the impending snowmageddon?

Well, right now it's on the cold side of the garage.

OK. Tucked up as far as possible

because I thought I could sneak something in behind it, but the car's too long.

Yeah. So I'm currently going through an existential panic.

Absolutely. OK.

I'm hoping to have a structure to put it in before snow falls.

He thinks we're going to.

I've got I've got I mean, whoa, my God.

I love your look of determination, Jeffrey.

I told him I said at this point we're committed.

We can't let the snow fall and bury his holes

and start over in the winter or in the spring.

I've I've gone through the I'm in the grieving process at this point in the grieving process.

So Jeff is my little light at the end.

We got to get the framing up.

I was going to say, you can at least set the poles.

Yeah, let's we have no choice.

Well, set the poles and get the framing done

because if you set the poles and don't frame, all your poles are going to warp

and you're going to have a worse situation come spring.

I guess I was thinking of the poles being set

and and not trust, but correct.

I'm missing the word right now where you, you know,

where you have them straight up and down.

But yeah, the life of me, I'm losing the word.

Reinforced is all I can last year beat me so bad.

Yeah, it was like a spring day and then impending doom.

Yeah, well, have 10 feet of snow.

I am instantly hopeful the way we don't experience that again.

And I since I ran into that with my wife's boozy she shed.

Oh, it's Jeffrey and I started a year ago.

My to my project was to while I had largely had it dried in,

I did not have my door and door framing and all that kind of stuff.

So that was my weekend was to ensure that the she shed was completely dried in

and we could start moving her stuff in there

so that we could seek some organization to kind of restructure

as I've got tools everywhere from different projects.

And so I so the shed is officially winter usable.

The shed is officially winter usable.

And I'm thrilled about that.

And that was a big portion for me this weekend, of course,

having the the standard, you know, athletic pursuits and whatnot.

And I do want to just kind of give a brief shout out

not that anybody super cares about the sports balls among our base.

But I had a fun experience.

My kid playing fall ball baseball because he ended up playing

both football and baseball the same this year.

The organizers of Kingsville area Little League,

which is a neighboring town, which my kid played for,

had the most fun costume game yesterday.

Oh, that's cool.

So kids showed up to play baseball in costume.

That's fun. So what was the trend?

There was a lot of ninjas.

I was some zombies.

My my kid was a ghostbuster.

So one of the coaches of one of the opposing teams

came as a giant chicken inflatable, you know, kudos to him.

The older kids didn't indulge as much.

But like our shortstop plate with a banana head on.

And, you know, it was this deep sense of Americana.

And I guess I'm bringing it up because the weather was gorgeous

yesterday morning prior to the storm was was and as a whole,

I mean, there was four to six to eight games happening yesterday

among this complex.

And the games were supposed to happen later in the day.

They emergency messages came out to everybody.

Hey, we're moving everything up.

If you can get there, it's basically going to be shortened or, you know,

kind of in and out.

I think we actually only played three innings

in an hour and 20 minutes or something.

But it was this great mobilization.

And again, kids showed up to have fun and everybody, they played music.

And then they finished with a trunk or treat.

And I just thought, like, we need to celebrate

some of this, like where we actually came together in a unified capacity

to just enjoy some of the things that make us our culture.

Such a fun and unique and diverse experience.

Now, you got to come as they are, whether they wanted to be dressed up or not.

That was fine.

Everybody got to participate in the trunk or treat regardless.

And it was just a neat environment and a great way to end a very fun season.

That's awesome. Thanks.

I on Saturday after work, I ended up driving down to the Grove City outlets

to have dinner with my best friend from high school for his 40th birthday.

I had a good good time there.

And then we were we probably sat around that table for two or three hours and

drove back. It was 11 o'clock at night by the time we got back home.

So and then and then I was up doing concrete work.

You missed the best part of that experience.

Oh, well, I should share that.

Yeah, because I told him about it.

So while we were in, we went to Permané Brothers

and while we were there on the menu,

they have this really cool drink that's a duck drink.

So they're catering to Jeepers in that regard.

Sure. And I thought that was pretty fun.

I made a comment about it.

I was like, that's that's fun.

Maybe I'll have to try that drink one of these times.

And when we leave, sure enough, one of the Permané Ducks is on my door handle.

Oh, get out. It was it was just a little tiny baby duck.

And I'm like, I think I got ducked by Permané Brothers.

Yeah. I walk up and sure enough, it's got the logo on there.

I'm like, so either somebody got the drink and threw it on my Jeep

as they were leaving because they know that the Jeep community enough.

Or Permané actually is going out actively ducking Jeeps.

Sure. And it's important to know for our global listening audience

that this particular so Permané Brothers is a regional restaurant

started at Pittsburgh, yep, out of the Pittsburgh area and has expanded.

And this one is actually kind of on the outskirts of where

Bantam Jeep Heritage Festival takes place, the one that you were you were dining at.

Yeah, it was only 15 miles from there, roughly.

Makes makes perfect sense that they would kind of indulge this

highly motivated and organized group of enthusiasts.

And that's a super cool testament to them as a company.

Oh, and if you haven't been to Permané Brothers,

if you go to Bantam in June, go check them out.

There's several in the area, but they're affordable.

They've got great sandwiches.

You get some of that Pittsburgh feeling to it with the coleslaw

and the sandwich and the fries on the sandwich.

So just an all around unique experience to this region.

Yeah, love it. I've eaten at the the OG down in the city itself.

And and very fortunate that, you know, Western PA,

you know, supports them appropriately.

So all right, folks, we are going to cut it at that point

unless there's anything else for the good of the good of the masses.

Outstanding.

We we've got a lot of Jeeps to build a lot of work to do.

We've we are less than two weeks away from SEMA,

where we will have two spectacular Jeeps on display,

a incredible testament to the very fiber of this business

and in both kind of celebrating both Scott and Greg's

diligence to the Jeep community and then ultimately the entirety

of our teams supporting that process

and bringing our customers dreams true.

And and so we're going to have those on display

on a global showcase, if you will.

So make sure you follow along some of the coverage for that.

And obviously, in that process, you can tune into Jeffrey

Jeffrey's Tuesday live updates and kind of see some of the projects

and some of the the the vehicles that we're working on at any given time.

So until next time, Jeep on Jeep on Jeep on.

Beyond the Color: Jeep Paint, Durability, and Innovation

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Ford Model T

Jeep Willys

Tesla My Model

Chevrolet Monte Carlo

Jeep Cherokee

Jeep Grand Cherokee

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